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LIBRARY  HANDBOOK  No.  9 


A    Normal    Library    Budget 

and  its 

Units  or  Expense 


BY 


O.  R.  HOWARD  THOMSON 

Librarian,  The  James  V.  Brown  Library 
Williamsport,  Pa. 


Amerioan  Library  Association  Publisking  Board 

78  East  Washington  Street,  Chicago 


1913 


LIBRARY  HANDBOOK  No.  9 


A    Normal    Library    Budget 

and  its 

Units   of   Expense 


BY 


O.  R.  HOWARD  THOMSON 

Librarian,  The  James  V.  Bro-wn  Library 
^^illiamsport.  Pa. 


American   Library   Association   Publishing  Board 

78    East    Washington   Street.   Chicago 

1913 


% 


1> 


scv^oot 


A  Normal  Library  Budget  and  Its 
Units  of  Expense' 


The  feasibility  of  devising  a  system  by  which  library 
budgets  can  be  compiled  has  long  been  a  moot  question. 
This,  not  only  because  libraries  are  of  different  kinds  and 
engaged  in  various  sorts  of  work,  but  because  of  the 
present  chaotic  condition  which  is  revealed  by  even  a 
superficial  study  of  the  statistics  available. 

While  schools  have  for  years  been  compelled  to  fur- 
nish instruction  to  every  child  under  a  certain  age  in  an 
assigned  territory  and  given  the  money  necessary  to  do 
so,  libraries  have  been  permitted  to  grow  in  a  haphazard 
way,  merely  being  expected  to  do  the  best  possible  with 
whatever  income  they  have  been  able  to  secure.  This 
income  has  borne  no  relation  to  the  population  which  the 
library  is  presumably  supposed  to  serve.  Of  cities  of  over 
100,000  population,  Chicago's  per  capita  receipts  in  1908, 
from  taxes,  were  12  cents;  Philadelphia's,  15  cents;  New 
York's,  23  cents;  Pittsburgh's,  56  cents,  and  Seattle's,  61 
cents;  and  the  income  of  endowed  libraries  varied  as 
greatly,  the  Rosenberg  library,  of  Galveston,  reporting  an 
annual  expenditure  of  60  cents  per  capita  and  the  James 
V.  Brown  library  of  Williamsport,  an  expenditure  of  25 
cents.  With  such  differences  in  resources  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  table,  compiled  four  or  five  years  ago  by 
the  Cleveland  public  library,  of  work  done  by  the  ten 
largest  circulating  libraries  in  the  country  should  show 
an  equal  variation,  the  number  of  volumes  loaned  for 
home  use  varying  from  .92  per  capita  in  Chicago  to  3.99 
in    Cleveland.      Nor,    on    account    of    tht    different    work 


1.  From  an  address  delivered  before  the  Keystone  State  Library 
Association.  All  figures,  unless  otherwise  credited,  are  from  the 
U.    S.    Bureau   of   Education    Bulletin,   1909;    No.    5    (Whole   No.    405). 


281098 


4  A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET 

undertaken  by  libraries,  has  the  relationship  between 
volumes  circulated  and  money  expended  been  more  stable. 
In  the  list  of  110  libraries  circulating  over  100,000  volumes 
annually,  compiled  by  Dr.  Bostvi^ick,  of  St.  Louis,  in  his 
"American  public  library,"^  the  expenditure  per  100,000 
volumes  circulated  varies  from  $5,000  to  $25,000. 

The  Carnegie  idea  of  an  income  equal  to  10%  of  the 
cost  of  the  building  has  been  sufficiently  advertised  to 
necessitate  mention.  Even  presuming  the  building  to  be 
adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  city,  it  is  unscientific — being 
adequate  or  inadequate  according  to  the  cost  of  the 
materials  of  which  the  building  is  constructed.  The 
Tacoma  (Washington)  library  is  erecting  wooden 
branches,  with  shelving  for  8,000  volumes,  at  a  cost, 
including  furniture  and  equipment,  of  $5,000  each.  That 
10%  of  $5,000,  or  $500  a  year,  is  insufficient  to  run  a 
library  of  8,000  volumes  is  so  obvious  that  it  should  not  re- 
quire statement. 

It  is — from  the  standpoint  of  an  observer  of  social 
conditions — the  extraordinary  absence  of  uniformity  in 
library  expenditure  that  makes,  it  so  difficult  for  most 
libraries  to  persuade  the  authorities  to  put  them  on  a 
reasonable  basis.  In  the  matter  of  starting  libraries  any- 
body is  privileged  to  do  anything,  and  frequently  the  more 
inadequate  the  performance  the  greater  the  approbation 
expected.  Recently,  a  library  named  after  an  individual 
was  established  in  a  city  of  almost  50,000  inhabitants,  with 
an  endowment  of  less  than  $3,000  a  year.  Such  things 
should  be  made  by  law  as  impossible  as  the  establishment 
of  a  school  system  capable  of  instructing  but  10%  of  the 
children. 

The  inadequacy  of  more  than  half  of  our  public 
libraries  is  the  cause  of  the  slight  esteem  in  which  they 
are  generally  held  by  business  men  and  taxpayers.  If 
the  business  man,  the  mechanic,  the  seamstress,  the  cook, 
the    bookkeeper,    the    engineer,    the    contractor    and    the 


1.     Published  by  Appleton  &  Co.     1910. 


A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET  5 

minister,  find  that  despite  the  fact  that  their  town  or  city- 
has  an  ornate  library  building,  they  must  still  buy  two- 
thirds  of  the  books  they  themselves  wish  to  consult,  are 
they  to  be  blamed  for  regarding  the  library  as  an  institu- 
tion devoted  to  the  giving  out  of  picture  books  to  children 
and  novels  to  women?  Are  they  to  be  censured  for  re- 
garding the  library,  not  as  an  integral  part  of  education, 
but  as  a  luxury;  a  thing  whose  necessity,  if  greater  than 
that  of  a  village  band,  is  less  than  that  of  cement-walks 
in  the  town  green? 

The  lack  of  the  recognition  of  a  definite  standard  of 
work  to  be  performed  by  a  library,  proportioned  in 
amount  to  the  population  in  which  it  is  located,  has  made 
it  difficult  for  libraries  to  secure  from  municipalities  the 
funds  they  should  receive.  The  statement  that  such  and 
such  a  city  spends  such  and  such  an  amount  is  useless, 
because  the  library  in  the  city  quoted  may  be  giving 
service  far  below  that  to  which  the  city  is  entitled.  At 
this  day,  the  empirical  method  is,  or  should  be,  out  of 
date,  and  a  librarian  should  be  able  to  state  what  a  library 
adequate  to  any  given  city  should  cost ;  and  to  give  a  fairly 
accurate  exposition  of  the  necessity  of  the  various  units 
that  make  up  the  total. 

As  a  hypothetical  case,  suppose  a  city  council,  of  a 
city  of  30,000  or  35,000  inhabitants,  asked  what  a  good, 
adequate,  well-administered  library  should  cost  a  year, 
and  that  after  they  were  told  $10,000  or  $11,000,  to  $12,000, 
they  questioned  the  estimate,  could  it  be  demonstrated 
in  an  ordinary  business  way  that  the  figures  given  were 
correct?  I  think  it  could,  if  they  would  bear  in  mind  that 
the  figures  were  for  an  ordinary  circulating  library,  fairly 
well  stocked  when  opened,  and  not  expected  to  build  up 
costly  special  collections;  and  if  they  would  agree  to  the 
single  premise  that  the  home  use  of  books  should  be  at 
least  three  times  the  number  of  the  population.  There 
must  be  some  standard  of  service  on  which  to  figure;  and 
though  reference  work  is  quite  as,  if  not  more,  important 
than  circulation  work,  as  the  average  town  wants  a  circu- 

270603 


6  A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET 

lating  library,  circulation  is  the  best  basis  on  which  to 
figure.  This  per  capita  figure  of  three  is  of  necessity  an 
arbitrary  one,  but  nearly  all  libraries  that  are  today 
accounted  well  administered  come  near  it,  while  before 
the  end  of  the  present  decade  the  figure  is  certain  to 
be  four  or  over.  Libraries  that  fall  short,  generally  do  so 
because  of  obviously  meager  funds.  Statistics  show  that  it  is 
easier  to  obtain  a  large  per  capita  circulation  in  a  small 
city  than  in  a  large  one,  and  as  New  York  obtains  a 
figure  of  2.64,  a  figure  of  3  cannot  be  considered  above 
normal. 

In  this  attempt  to  figure  the  normal  proportion  of 
the  various  units  of  expenditure,  a  library,  circulating 
100,000  volumes  a  year,  has  been  selected  not  only  because 
31%  of  the  population  of  the  United  States  is  contained 
in  cities  of  over  25,000  inhabitants,  but  also  because  such 
a  use  makes  it  possible  to  figure  the  number  of  books 
that  will  wear  out.  This  cannot  be  done,  accurately,  with 
much  smaller  libraries.  It  is  evident,  for  instance,  that  in 
a  community  of  500  persons,  even  novels,  if  lengthy  ones 
such  as  "Alice-for-short,"  could  never  obtain  sufficient 
readers  to  wear  them  out. 

Now,  in  an  average  library  for  a  city  of  35,000  per- 
sons, there  are  some  expenses  so  obviously  unaffected  by 
the  fluctuations  of  its  use,  that  business  men  will  scarcely 
object  to  their  being  termed  "fixed  charges."  After  they 
have  been  segregated  the  problem  will  be  simpler. 

The  first  thing  is  the  building.  Whether  it  cost  much 
or  little,  after  it  is  once  built  it  must  be  kept  in  repair, 
lighted  and  heated.  And  the  cost  of  lighting  and  heating 
any  building  will  be  the  same  whether  the  persons  who 
enter  it  in  a  day  number  20  or  1,000.  It  is  beyond  ques- 
tion that  if  books  are  upon  shelves  in  rooms  to  which  vis- 
itors have  access  the  minimum  staff  sufficient  to  police 
them  must  equal  the  number  of  rooms  open  to  visitors. 
This  minimum  is  the  same  whether  the  number  of  visitors 
in   any   one   of  the   rooms   is   two   or   fifty.      Further,    the 


A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET  7 

working  day  for  library  employees  being  but  about  eight  hours, 
if  the  rooms  are  open  twelve  hours  a  day,  it  is  apparent  that 
the  minimum  staff  or  police  force  must  equal  the  number 
of  rooms  to  be  policed,  multiplied  by  one  and  one-half.  In 
practice,  most  libraries  employ  a  force  equal  to  double  the 
number  of  rooms  to  be  policed,  and,  during  the  three  or 
four  hours  that  the  day  and  evening  forces  overlap,  em- 
ploy half  the  staff  on  such  work,  as  they  cannot  do  while 
"policing"  or  overseeing  the  rooms  in  their  charge — such 
work  as  cataloging,  ordering,  correspondence,  sending  of 
notices,  etc.,  etc. 

The  number  of  rooms  in  a  building  will  control  the 
number  required  to  police  it.  The  single  rectangle,  the 
cheapest  form  to  oversee,  is  not  suitable  for  anything  but 
a  branch,  as  a  circulation  of  100,000  volumes  a  year  means 
an  average  daily  number  of  visitors  of  between  300  and 
400,  and  their  moving  about,  charging,  selecting  and  re- 
turning books  makes  sufficient  noise  to  be  inimical  to  seri- 
ous study;  hence  this  supposititious  library  must  have  a 
reference  room.  Children  make  more  noise  than  adults, 
and  more  conversation  between  them  and  attendants  is 
necessary  than  between  the  latter  and  adults.  A  corner 
partitioned  off  is  only  a  makeshift,  hence  unless  an  ad- 
mitted makeshift  is  accepted  there  must  be  added  to  the 
library  a  children's  room.  That  makes  three  rooms  (lunch 
rooms,  staff  rooms,  closed  stacks,  etc.,  being  eliminated 
from  this  part  of  the  discussion,  as  they  are  not  open  to 
the  public).  That  there  are  libraries  doing  good  work 
with  less  than  three  rooms  merely  proves  that  with  obvi- 
ously inadequate  facilities  some  executives  are  able  to  pro- 
duce good  results;  it  does  not  prove  that  inadequate  facil- 
ities are  adequate.  Multiply,  then,  these  three  rooms  by 
two,  and  six  is  the  minimum  number  of  the  staff  to  over- 
see them.  Add  to  this  a  janitor,  and,  though  the  staff  is 
increased  to  seven  persons,  the  library  cannot  be  run  sat- 
isfactorily unless  the  children's  room  is  closed  in  the  even- 
ing. Half  of  the  staff  is  three,  and  if  one  is  in  the  refer- 
ence room,  and  one  in  the  children's  room,  there  will  be 


8  A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET 

but  one  in  the  delivery  desk  to  receive  all  books  returned, 
to  charge  all  books  issued,  to  shelve  as  many  books  as 
possible,  also  to  receive  applications,  issue  reader's  cards 
and  run  back  and  forth  to  the  stacks  to  procure  books 
called  for,  but  not  on  the  open  shelves.  Stated  in  this 
way,  few  city  councils,  or  boards  composed  of  business 
men,  would  object  to  a  staff  of  seven  being  considered  as 
a  "fixed  charge,"  largely  irrespective  of  circulation  at- 
tained. 

What  would  it  cost?  That  the  greatest  diversity  in 
salaries  exists  was  shown  by  the  table  submitted  by  Mr. 
Graver,  of  Pittsburgh,  at  the  meeting  at  Pasadena  in  1911. 
The  average  salary  cost  per  100,000  volumes  issued,  fig- 
ured from  Dr.  Bostwick's  list  of  110  libraries  circulating 
that  number,  or  over,  annually,  is  $6,148.  Roughly,  I 
estimate  that  a  competent  librarian  administering  a  library 
circulating  100,000  volumes  annually,  receives  $1,800  to 
$2,000  if  a  man,  and  $1,200  to  $1,500  if  a  woman.  Which  is 
selected  depends  largely  on  the  personal  preferences  of 
the  trustees,  and  the  phases  of  work  they  desire  accen- 
tuated; but  as  a  woman,  if  she  does  equal  work,  should 
receive  equal  pay,  let  us  take  the  figure  $1,800.*  Of  the 
five  assistants,  one  at  least,  for  the  sake  of  the  catalog, 
should  be  a  graduate  of  a  library  school.  Library  school 
graduates,  even  when  they  live  at  home,  are  hard  to  hold 
at  less  than  $50  a  month,^  and  the  reference  librarian,  pref- 
erably    a     college    graduate,     should     certainly    not     receive 


1.  Actually,  this  salary  is  somewhat  above  the  average,  there  being 
more  women   employed  as  librarians  than  men. 

2.  This  refers  to  graduates  of  library  schools,  having  a  one  year's 
course.  The  entrance  requirement  of  such  schools  is  generally  a  high 
school  education  or  its  equivalent.  Graduates  of  schools  which  demand 
an  A.  B.  as  entrance  requirement,  and  whose  courses  cover  two  or  three 
years,  could  not  be  secured  at  this  salary.  Most  of  such  graduates 
become  either  chief  librarians  or  heads  of  departments  in  the  large 
libraries. 

3.  Most  of  the  assistants  in  libraries  in  small  towns  live  at  home, 
hence  are  willing  to  work  for  less  than  those  in  larger  cities,  who  are 
frequently  "adrift."  With  the  ethics  of  thus  making  the  parents 
of  library  assistants  contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  the  library 
by  giving  to  their  daughters  the  difference  between  what  they  earn  and 
what  it  costs  them  to  live,  this  paper  has  nothing  to  do.  Thirty-five 
dollars  a  month  works  out  at  $8.07  a  week. 


A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET  9 

less.  The  other  three  could — I  do  not  say  should — be 
retained  at  $35^  a  month  each;  a  janitor  rarely  receives 
less  than  $50.  These  salaries  total  $4,860.  Owing  to  the 
difficulty  of  tiding  over  the  supper  hour,  and  the  heavy 
vi^ork  on  Saturdays,  some  substitute  work  is  generally 
necessary — say,  $25  a  month — and  the  salary  total  is  in- 
creased to  $5,160,  of  which  66  2/3  per  cent  to  90  per  cent, 
according  to  how  it  is  figured,  is  for  policing  the  building, 
and  janitor  service. 

Building  maintenance  is  difficult  to  discuss.  There  are 
little  data  from  which  to  figure  it,  and  the  sum  of  $300  is 
suggested  at  hazard. 

Lighting  and  heating  costs  depend  on  the  design  of 
the  building.  Given  plans,  and  with  knowledge  of  the  pre- 
vailing climatic  conditions,  an  engineer  could  lay  out  the 
wire  and  flue  plans  of  any  building  so  as  to  insure  its  being 
lighted  and  heated  in  the  most  economical  manner.  He 
could  even  estimate  the  annual  cost,  and  sometimes  the 
results  would  not  differ  much  from  his  estimates. .  Practi- 
cally, buildings  are  operated  a  full  year,  and  thereafter 
the  total  expenditures  for  these  items  considered  an  an- 
nual charge.  The  reports  of  some  15  to  20  libraries  in 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  each  circulating  75,000  to 
150,000  volumes  annually,  show  an  annual  average  expen- 
diture for  light  and  heat  of  $817.  Some  receive  light,  and 
some  heat,  free,  so,  if  the  library  has  to  pay,  a  safe  esti- 
mate would  be  $1,000. 

The  real  significance  of  the  items  so  far  discussed  is 
not  their  amount,  but  the  fact  that  they  are  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  "fixed  charges" — charges  that  cannot  be  re- 
duced without  obviously  making  it  impossible  for  the 
library  to  render  that  service  which  the  community  is 
justified  in  expecting  of  it.  Presented  in  this  light,  any 
board  composed  of  business  men,  would  accept  them  as 
such,  and  hold  they  were  neither  to  any  great  extent  sus- 
ceptible of  criticism,  nor  affected,  except  in  a  small  de- 
gree, by  the  number  of  persons  using  the  library. 

3.     See  Note  3  on  p.  8. 


10  A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET 

Still  further,  the  fact  that  these  items  which  must  be 
regarded  as  "fixed  charges,"  total  $6,460,  renders  the  time- 
worn  question  of  trustees,  "What  percentage  of  a  library's 
income  should  be  spent  on  books?"  meaningless,  unless, 
and  here  is  the  crux  of  the  matter,  the  amount  required 
to  keep  the  book  stock  up-to-date  can  be  demonstrated 
in  a  businesslike  way,  and  then  added  to  the  fixed  charges. 
This  is  self-evident,  for  if  a  library,  with  three  rooms,  re- 
ceives only  $6,000,  its  receipts  would  be  insufficient  to 
light,  heat  and  police  it  properly. 

If  we  assent  to  the  proposition  that  a  per  capita  cir- 
culation of  a  certain  figure  must  be  attained  or  the  library 
considered  inefficient,  and  assume  that  the  library  has  a 
fair  stock  of  books  to  commence  with,  the  sum  that  should 
be  spent  on  books  is  really  easier  to  figure  than  the  salary 
item.  The  factors  that  enter  into  it  are  less  variable.  How 
does  a  merchant  figure  the  selling  price  of  his  goods?  He 
takes  the  purchase  cost,  and  adds  to  it  the  cost  of  han- 
dling and  his  profit.  Libraries  do  not  want  a  profit,  and 
the  handling  cost  is  practically  nil  because  the  number  of 
persons  who  are  necessary  to  police  a  building  is  almost 
sufficient  to  deliver,  receive  and  do  whatever  other  hand- 
ling of  books  is  necessary.  If  a  book  is  of  a  kind  that 
circulates  steadily  till  it  is  worn  out,  its  cost  is  the  price 
paid  for  it,  plus  the  amount  spent  to  rebind  it,  if  neces- 
sary; and  the  cost  of  each  issue  is  the  sum  of  its  pur- 
chase and  rebinding  price,  divided  by  the  issues  obtained. 
While  it  is  true  that  some  books  cost  $10  and  some  18 
cents,  and  that  numbers  of  books  never  wear  out,  it  is  also 
true  that  7.5  per  cent  to  80  per  cent  of  a  library's  circula- 
tion is  obtained  from  books  that  circulate  with  fair  regu- 
larity until  they  are  worn  out.  Juvenile  books  constitute 
from  30  per  cent  to  60  per  cent  of  a  library's  total  circula- 
tion, the  exact  figures  apparently  depending  on  whether 
or  not  duplicate  school  collections  are  established;  and 
fiction  constitutes  from  50  per  cent  to  75  per  cent  of  the 
adult  issues. 

Take  fiction  first.     Its  price  varies  from  De  Morgan 


A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET  11 

at  $1.58  to  the  Duchess  at  36  cents;  but  as  almost  all  of  it 
circulates  to  the  worn-out  point,  it  is  possible,  unless 
purchases,  as  judged  by  quality,  are  very  erratic,  to  strik^ 
an  average.  And  the  same  can  be  done  with  juvenile 
books.  For  fourteen  months  the  James  V.  Brown  library 
of  Williamsport  kept  careful  record  of  every  book  that 
was  actually  withdrawn  as  wornout.  This  method  avoid- 
ed the  errors  that  are  always  due  when  "examples"  are 
selected.  There  were  486  volumes  of  fiction  discarded; 
their  purchase  cost  was  $352.96,  their  rebinding  cost  $231, 
and  the  number  of  issues  obtained  from  them  was  51,813, 
an  average  of  107.  Therefore,  the  purchase  and  binding 
cost  for  each  issue  of  fiction  was  1.13  cents.  During  the 
same  time  744  juvenile  books  were  discarded  for  which 
$494.51  had  been  paid  originally,  plus  $334.40  for  rebind- 
ing. The  total  issues  obtained  were  67,068,  an  average  of 
90.  Therefore,  the  purchase  and  binding  cost  for  each 
juvenile  issue  was  1.24  cents.  Some  libraries  may  pur- 
chase cheaper  or  obtain  a  greater  number  of  issues,  but 
the  difference  is  not  likely  to  be  very  great.  The  James 
V.  Brown  library  had  only  been  operating  four  years, 
when  the  test  was  made,  an  insufficient  time  to  bring 
many  of  the  "circulation  record-breakers"  to  the  worn- 
out  point.  Later  records  show  that  some  books  were  issued 
over  200  times  before  being  worn  out,  and  some  years 
later  a  similar  investigation  might  show  an  average  issue 
of  125  for  fiction  instead  of  107. 

The  significance  of  the  figures  is  this,  that  if  during 
any  year  a  library  spends  for  juvenile  books  and  fiction 
less  than  the  purchase  and  binding  cost  of  an  issue  of 
these  classes,  multiplied  by  the  total  volumes  circulated, 
its  stock  has  depreciated  in  value.  To  a  business  man  it 
would  appear  as  false  policy  as  diminishing  his  capital  by 
declaring  dividends  out  of  it.  That  this  is  not  generally 
recognized  is  proven  by  many  reports  showing  extremely 
low  costs  of  circulation.  These  apparent  low  costs  of 
circulation    are    obtained    by    the    bulk   of   the   cost   being 


12  A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET 

taken  from  capital  (that  is,  the  potential  circulation  in- 
herent in  the  books).  If  a  library,  started  with  10,000  vol- 
umes circulated  those  volumes  till  they  were  worn  out,  but 
never  bought  new  ones,  it  could  not  be  said  the  cost  was 
merely  that  of  administration — the  cost  would  have  been 
administration  plus  the  capital  (in  this  case,  books)  that 
was  completely  wiped  out.  Looked  at  in  this  way,  the 
book  and  binding  cost  necessary  to  keep  that  portion  of 
a  library's  stock  from  which  nearly  80  per  cent  of  its  cir- 
culation is  obtained,  can  be  calculated.  Figured  for  a 
supposititious   100,000  volumes   circulation  annually : 

50,000  juvenile  issues,  at  1.24  cents... $620 
30,000  fiction  issues,  at  1.13  cents 3,39 

To  this  must  be  added — and  here  it  is  necessary  to  es- 
timate— the  number  of  volumes  destroyed  by  the  health 
board*  on  account  of  their  having  been  in  houses  in  which 
there  were  contagious  diseases,  and  the  number  of  such  a 
nature  as  not  to  circulate  to  the  worn-out  stage — say,  in  a 
year,  50  volumes  each  of  juvenile  and  fiction,  $118.50 — and 
the  total  cost  of  fiction  and  juvenile  issues  is  $1,077.50. 

Now,  classed  books — that  is,  books  other  than  novels. 
Their  cost  cannot  be  figured  on  the  same  basis.  Most  of 
them  never  wear  out.  The  turnover  of  the  James  V. 
Brown  library's  adult  circulating  class  books  is  about  2. 
Mr.  Ranck,  of  Grand  Rapids,  says,  in  a  recent  report,  20 
per  cent  of  his  classed  books  did  not  circulate  once  in  two 
years,  and  that  his  4,000  "useful  arts"  circulation  was  ob- 
tained from  about  2,000  volumes.  If  a  book  circulates  but 
twice  a  year  it  will  take  50  years  to  wear  it  out.  How 
many  of  the  technological  books  printed  today  will  be 
sufficiently  up-to-date  in  fifty  years  to  be  called  for?  Re- 
cent statements  of  prominent  librarians  show  the  average 
class  book  costs  somewhat  less  than  $1.50.  In  1911,  how- 
ever, the  382  adult  circulating  class  books  purchased  by 
the  James  V.  Brown  library  cost  an  average  of  $1.88.  In 
any  event,  it  is  not  probable  that  the  purchase  cost  (and 
rebinding  cost  of  such  as  need  it)  would  be  less  than  $2 


A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET  13 

a  volume.  If  a  library  adds  500  circulating  class  volumes 
a  year,  including  replacements  of  things  like  Longfellov^, 
cook-books,  handy  manuals,  U.  S.  histories,  Stoddard's 
Lectures,  etc.,  that  would  be  $1,000.  Reference  books,  in- 
cluding trade  and  bibliographic  manuals,  can  hardly  be 
kept  under  $200;  so  for  books  the  minimum  total  is  $2,- 
277.50. 

Magazines  are  as  difficult  to  estimate  on  as  class 
books;  that  is,  magazines  used  for  reading  and  reference, 
not  for  circulation  purposes.  The  average  expenditure  for 
magazines  per  100,000  circulation  for  the  110  libraries  listed 
by  Dr.  Bostwick  is  $240.  The  James  V.  Brown  library  finds 
that  it  costs  to  bind  its  magazines,  including  eight  or  ten 
presented  (specifying  the  best  binding),  75  per  cent  of 
their  subscription  cost;  75  per  cent  of  $240  is  $180,  so  the 
magazine  cost  is  $420. 

The  items  determined  so  far  are:  Building  mainte- 
nance, light  and  heat,  salaries,  books  and  binding,  maga- 
zines and  binding.  The  other  necessary  expenditures  are 
supplies  and  printing,  and  miscellaneous. 

Supplies  and  printing  should  include  a  monthly  bulle- 
tin of  additions  to  the  library  and  an  annual  report,  as 
well  as  all  desk  supplies,  accession  books,  catalog  cards, 
stamps,  readers'  cards,  labels,  book  plates,  book  pockets, 
postal  cards,  etc.  If  one  or  two  reading  lists,  and  reading 
lists  are  of  immense  value,  are  issued,  this  item  will  cost 
about  $500. 

Miscellaneous  expenses  will  include  freightage,  dray- 
age,  expressage,  traveling  expenses,  telephone  rent,  ice, 
extra  scrubbing  and  cleaning  (though  possibly  this 
should  be  charged  against  "salaries"),  hauling  away  of 
ashes,  repair  of  clocks,  membership  dues  to  whatever 
bodies  the  library  as  a  library  belongs,  etc.,  etc.,  and  will 
probably  total  another  $500. 


14  A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET 

The  total  budget  is,  therefore: — 

Building  maintenance   $  300.00 

Light  and  heat 1,000.00 

Salaries    5,160.00 

Books  and  binding 2,277.50 

Magazines  and  binding    420.00 

Supplies  and  printing 500.00 

Miscellaneous  expenses   500.00 

Total $10,157.50 

and  such  a  budget  insures  to  the  library  an  annual  growth 
of  about  400  circulating  class  books,  $200  worth  of  refer- 
ence books,  100  to  150  volumes  of  bound  magazines,  gov- 
ernment and  state  documents,  whatever  gifts  are  received, 
and  that  small  proportion  of  the  fiction  purchased  which 
"slows  up"  in  circulation  on  account  of  not  possessing  uni- 
versal appeal.  This  growth  is  probably  sufficient,  if,  but 
only  if,  the  library  has  a  sound  and  numerically  sufficient 
collection  when  it  opens.^  What  that  is,  is  difficult  to 
demonstrate.  One  volume  per  capita  is  the  suggestion 
that  has  been  more  widely  accepted  than  any  other. 

These  figures  are  only  suggested  as  a  basis  for  the 
minimum  for  an  average  community  under  normal  condi- 
tions. Roughly  speaking,  the  cost  per  100,000  circulation 
does  not  increase  as  the  circulation  goes  above  that  figure; 
New  York's  is  considerably  below  $12,000.  An  increase  in 
circulation,  up  to  a  certain  point,  entails  only  an  increase 
in  the  desk  grade  of  library  workers.  It  is  probable  that 
four  additional  assistants  could  care  for  the  extra  desk 
work  involved  in  a  100,000  volume  increase  of  circulation. 
Light  and  heat  would  not  increase,  but  book  purchase, 
binding   and   supplies   costs,   would   double.      Proportional 


1.  A  frequent  trouble  with  small  libraries  is  that  their  patrons 
"read  them  through."  No  patron  reads  all  the  books  in  the  library,  but 
many  frequently  do  read  all  the  books  on  the  subjects  in  which  they  are 
interested.  Unless  the  original  collection  is  a  fairly  large  one,  the 
annual  growth,  above  suggested,  will  not  be  sufficient  to  hold  the 
patronage  secured  at  the  start.  For  eight  or  ten  years  at  least  the 
annual  expenditures  for  books  would  have  to  be  considerably  greater. 


A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET  15 

figures  would  probably  hold  good  down  to,  say,  50,000  cir- 
culation— not  much  below. 

If  the  suggested  figures  are  practical  ones,  not  merely 
theoretical,  they  should  not  differ  greatly  from  the  aver- 
age of  those  of  the  libraries  that  are  recognized  as  doing 
good,  adequate  work.  In  the  107  libraries  circulating  100,- 
000  volumes  or  over,  tabulated  by  Dr.  Bostwick,  the  ex- 
penditures of  which  were  reported  in  detail  by  the  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education,  the  average  expenditure  per  100,000 
volumes  circulated  was,  in  1908: 

Salaries   $  6,148 

Books    '.  .      2',366 

Periodicals    240 

Bindery     593 

All  other  expenses 2,943 

Total   $12,290 

That  is,  $2,132.50  more  than  the  estimate  figured  as  above. 
The  salary  item  is  $988  in  excess;  the  books,  binding  and 
magazines  $501.50  in  excess,  leaving  the  remaining  excess 
of  $643  divided  among  the  other  items.  Probably  most 
of  these  libraries  have  study  rooms,  art  rooms  and  prop- 
erly salaried  members  of  the  staff  in  charge  of  reference, 
technical  and  school  work,  which  is  as  it  should  be.  But 
why  should  not  libraries  separate  their  reference  room 
salaries,  and  other  units  if  possible,  from  the  general 
salaries?  If  they  stated  in  their  printed  reports  that  their 
reference  departments  cost  so  much  for  books,  so  much 
for  magazines  and  binding,  so  much  for  salaries,  etc.,  and 
then  did  the  same  with  any  other  special  departments,  the 
cost  of  circulating  a  volume,  as  figured  by  adverse  news- 
paper critics,  would  soon  come  down. 

Three  other  activities  are  frequently  engaged  in  by 
libraries,  the  wisdom  of  their  doing  such  work  being  de- 
pendent upon  local  conditions.  If  they  are  undertaken, 
their  cost  should  be  added  to  the  budget. 

The  first  two  are  public  lectures  and  art  exhibitions. 


16  A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET 

Personally,  the  writer  has  little  doubt  that  in  almost  all 
cases  both  are  justified,  and  that  in  the  majority  of  in- 
stances they  may  even  be  regarded  as  necessary.  They 
should  both  be  absolutely  free  to  the  public.  To  make 
even  a  nominal  charge  for  them  is  of  as  doubtful  policy 
as  the  "duplicate  pay  collection"  of  recently  published 
fiction.  Such  charges,  in  the  long  run,  inevitably  make 
the  poorer  element  realize  that  certain  privileges  are  ob- 
tained from  the  library  by  those  possessing 'money,  v^^hich 
are  denied  to  them  whose  incomes  are  but  equivalent  to 
the  necessaries  of  life.  The  cost  that  exhibitions  and  lec- 
tures entail  on  the  library  seem  in  most  cases  to  be  re- 
turned, not  only  through  their  value  as  advertising,  but 
through  their  powerful  stimulation  of  a  demand  for 
classed  books.' 

The  third  activity  is  the  circulation  of  current  maga- 
zines. If  magazines  are  given  to  the  library  for  this  pur- 
pose, or  if  the  advertising  obtained  from  such  circulation 
is  equivalent  to  the  cost,  little  can  be  said  against  it. 
But  if  they  have  to  be  purchased  it  is  incontestably  the 
most  expensive  work  in  which  an  ordinary  library  can  in- 
dulge. An  investigation  made  some  years  ago  by  the 
Misses  Sanderson  and  Smith  of  the  New  York  state  library 
school  ^  and  one  made  more  recently  by  the  writer,  both 
show  that  single  numbers  of  magazines,  even  those  con- 
taining serials  destined  later  to  become  best  sellers,  do 
not  remain  in  demand  more  than  four  or  five  months,  dur- 
ing which  time  they  are  issued  15  to  20  times.  The  more 
serious  magazines,  like  the  "North  American  Review"  and  the 
"Review  of  Reviews,"  are  apparently  issued  but  5  to    10 


1.  A  course  of  six  lectures,  by  members  of  the  better  University 
Extension  societies,  costs  generally  between  $200  and  $300.  An  art 
exhibition,  when  the  canvases  are  for  sale,  costs  little  more  than 
insurance,  expressage  and  printing.  If  the  library  is  in  touch  with 
the  larger  art  institutions,  and  not  more  than  200  or  .300  miles  distant 
from  them,  a  really  good  three  weeks'  show  could  be  given  for  between 
$50  and  $100.  Both  a  lecture  course  and  art  exhibition  could  therefore 
be  had  for  about  $300. 

2.  Published  in  the  Library  Journal,  vol.  33,  pp.  86-94,  March, 
1908. 


A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET  17 

times.  If  the  15-cent  magazines  can  be  purchased  for  10 
cents,  and  are  borrowed  15  times,  the  cost  per  issue  is  but 
2/3ds  of  a  cent.  That  is,  it  is  true,  but  little  more  expen- 
sive than  the  cheaper  fiction  of  the  type  of  "The  Duchess" 
and  the  Wister  translations,  which,  purchased  for  36  cents 
and  rebound  for  45  cents,  if  issued  125  times,  cost  per  issue 
56/lOOths  of  a  cent.  But  if  it  is  a  question  of  the  "Cen- 
tury," or  "Scribner's,"  which  cannot  be  purchased  under 
about  30  cents,  evidently  the  cost  per  issue  rises  to  2 
cents;  and  if  it  is  the  "North  American  Review,"  which 
costs  about  the  same,  and  is  issued  but  5  times,  the  cost 
per  issue  rises  to  6  cents,  and  if  it  is  necessary  to  rein- 
force the  magazine,  and  it  generally  is,  the  cost  rises  high- 
er still.  This  is,  of  course,  presuming  that  the  library  does 
not  circulate  the  copies  intended  to  be  bound.  Such  a 
practice  would  be  at  least  a  risky  proceeding,  would  crip- 
ple the  reference  department,  and  destroy  the  practice  of 
persons  coming  to  the  library  confident  of  being  able  to 
consult  current  magazines. 

It  is  possibly  worth  adding  that  if  the  majority  of 
readers  borrow  magazines  for  the  serials  only,  the  case 
looks  still  worse.  In  the  first  place,  eight  numbers  of  the 
"Century"  (each  serial  runs  about  eight  months),  cost 
$2.40,  as  against  $1.08  for  the  novel  in  book  form;  in  the 
second  place,  each  issue  of  each  number  costs  2  cents,  as 
against  a  little  over  1  cent  for  the  novel  in  book  form; 
and  in  the  third  place,  if  the  magazines  are  borrowed 
solely  for  the  serial  it  costs  the  library  16  cents  (eight 
issues  at  2  cents),  to  enable  the  borrower  to  read  it  as 
issued,  instead  of  the  trifle  over  1  cent  it  would  cost  to 
supply  him  with  the  same  story  in  book  form  a  little 
later. 

To  return  to  the  general  budget,  the  chief  points  to 
be  borne  in  mind  are: 

1.  That  a  library  should  be  expected  by  every  munic- 
ipality to  do  work  proportioned  to  the  population. 

2.  That  given  the  population,  it  is  practical  to  figure 
normal  costs  of  administration. 


18  A  NORMAL  LIBRARY  BUDGET 

3.  That  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  charges  of 
maintenance  of  building,  light,  heat,  and  probably  over  80 
per  cent  of  salaries,  are  as  much  fixed  charges  as  the  pay- 
ment of  interest  on  mortgages  negotiated  by  a  railroad. 

4.  That  the  acceptance  of  the  classification  of  the  ex- 
penditures for  the  maintenance  of  building,  light,  heat  and 
the  larger  portion  of  the  salary  item  as  fixed  charges  leaves 
little  but  the  cost  of  books,  binding,  and  magazines  to  be 
figured  on:  further,  that  the  cost  of  these  latter  items  can 
be  figured  with  reasonable  accuracy  in  an  ordinary  circulating 
library,  possessing  a  fair  collection  to  start  with,  and  not 
expected  to  build  up  special  collections  or  to  engage  in  un- 
usual and  costly  work. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

Th.-,honi.^5^^\  scrip:,:.,  j,T^p.r.v 

Ihis  book  IS  due  on  the  last  t&te  stamped  telbw,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


OCT  18 


1963 


MRlo  1971 


mi 


LD  21-50m-12,'61 
(C4796sl0)476 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


281098 


7^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAWFORNIA  LIBRARY 


*• 


